Welcome to the World of Core Studies!
Hi there! Welcome to one of the most exciting parts of your Psychology A Level. In this section, called Psychological themes through core studies, you aren't just learning facts from a textbook; you are learning the "stories" of how we discovered what makes humans tick.
Think of these studies as the "Greatest Hits" of psychology. We look at Classic studies (the famous ones that started it all) and Contemporary studies (the modern ones that show us how ideas have changed). Don't worry if it feels like a lot of names and dates at first—once you see the patterns, it becomes much easier!
1. The Big Picture: How it’s Organized
The OCR syllabus divides everything into five main areas. Each area has two key themes. For every theme, you will study one Classic study and one Contemporary study.
Memory Aid: To remember the five areas, just think: Some Clever Dogs Bark Intelligently.
- Social
- Cognitive
- Developmental
- Biological
- Individual Differences
Analogy: Imagine Psychology is a giant library. The Areas are the different floors (e.g., the "Social" floor), the Key Themes are the specific bookshelves (e.g., "Responses to authority"), and the Core Studies are the individual books you need to read.
Quick Review: You need to know 20 studies in total (10 pairs). Each pair consists of one old "classic" and one new "contemporary" study.
2. How to "Tell the Story" of a Study
For every single study, you need to be able to "tell its story." The examiners want to see that you understand the how and why, not just the names.
Whenever you revise a study, use this checklist:
- Background: What was happening in the world or in psychology that made the researchers want to do this? (e.g., Milgram wanted to understand how the Holocaust could happen).
- Method: This is the "recipe" of the study.
- Design: Was it a lab experiment? A field study?
- Sample: Who were the participants? (e.g., 40 males aged 20-50).
- Apparatus: What equipment did they use? (e.g., the "shock generator").
- Procedure: Step-by-step, what actually happened?
- Results: What did they find? Try to remember at least one key quantitative (number) result and one qualitative (description) result.
- Conclusions: What does it all mean? What did the researchers "take away" from their findings?
Quick Review: If you can't explain the "Procedure" like you're explaining a movie plot to a friend, you need to go back and review it!
3. Comparing the Pairs (Classic vs. Contemporary)
This is where many students get stuck, but it's actually quite simple! You need to look at how the two studies in a pair are similar and how they are different.
Key Comparison Points:
- Research Method: Did they both use lab experiments, or did the modern one move into a real-life setting?
- The Sample: Was the classic study "androcentric" (only men)? Did the contemporary study include women or different cultures?
- Changing Understanding: To what extent does the modern study change what we thought we knew? (e.g., Does it show that the classic findings still apply today?).
- Diversity: Does the contemporary study help us understand individual, social, and cultural diversity better?
Did you know? Contemporary studies often "fix" the problems of classic studies, such as using more diverse participants or more ethical methods.
4. Methodological Issues: The "Critic's" View
To get the top marks, you need to be a critic. You need to look at the strengths and weaknesses of each study. Don't worry if these terms seem tricky; they are just fancy ways of asking "Was this a good piece of research?"
- Reliability: If we did the study again, would we get the same results? (Think: Is it consistent?).
- Validity: Is the study measuring what it claims to measure?
- Ecological Validity: Is it like real life? (e.g., Giving electric shocks in a lab is low ecological validity).
- Ethnocentrism: Is the study centered only on one culture (usually Western)?
- Sampling Bias: Is the group of people tested too specific? (e.g., Only using students).
- Ethics: Did the researchers follow the rules? Did they protect participants from harm? Did they use deception?
Common Mistake to Avoid: Don't just say a study is "unethical." You must explain why (e.g., "It was unethical because participants were not protected from psychological harm as they believed they were actually hurting someone").
5. The Core Study Table (Summary of Themes)
Here is a simplified look at the themes you will be covering. Use this as your "Map":
Social Psychology
Theme: Responses to people in authority
- Classic: Milgram (Obedience)
- Contemporary: Bocchiaro et al. (Disobedience and whistle-blowing)
Theme: Responses to people in need
- Classic: Piliavin et al. (Subway Samaritan)
- Contemporary: Levine et al. (Cross-cultural altruism)
Cognitive Psychology
Theme: Memory
- Classic: Loftus and Palmer (Eyewitness testimony)
- Contemporary: Grant et al. (Context-dependent memory)
Theme: Attention
- Classic: Moray (Auditory attention)
- Contemporary: Simons and Chabris (Visual inattention - the invisible gorilla!)
Developmental Psychology
Theme: External influences on children’s behavior
- Classic: Bandura et al. (Transmission of aggression - the Bobo doll)
- Contemporary: Chaney et al. (Funhaler study - using rewards for medical inhalers)
Biological Psychology
Theme: Regions of the brain
- Classic: Sperry (Split-brain study)
- Contemporary: Casey et al. (Delay of gratification/willpower in the brain)
Individual Differences
Theme: Understanding disorders
- Classic: Freud (Little Hans)
- Contemporary: Baron-Cohen et al. (Autism in adults/The Eyes Task)
Key Takeaway: Each area looks at humans from a different angle. Social looks at groups, Cognitive looks at the mind as a computer, Developmental looks at growth, Biological looks at the body, and Individual Differences looks at what makes us unique.
Final Encouragement
You’ve got this! Psychology is about people, and you are a person—so you already have a head start. When you study these, try to imagine yourself in the study. What would you have done? This makes the details much stickier in your brain. Happy studying!